Four business rules I learnt in Kindergarten

Four business rules I learnt in Kindergarten

Naomi Simson
Founder, RedBalloon

 
Kindergarten equiped me with many life lessons apart from learning to drive One of RedBalloon's business values is 'a sense of humour and fun'.
I am blessed to come to bound out of bed every day looking forward to my day at work. It strikes me that the basic tenants of encouraging fun and 
productivity in the workplace, I learnt between the ages of three and five. If we share everything, play, be curious, hold hands and stick together 
(and we learned to cut and paste - we now use different tools for that one). My bet is that we'd all manage to stay much more inspired at work and
therefore intent on staying.
Whilst what you are about to read might sound like common sense, it doesn't hurt to reflect on the simple things in life that made our younger years so
much easier than life seems to be today.

Share everything:
When I was an employee in other people's businesses I regularly heard ˜We need to improve our communication'. RedBalloon has a clearly defined, daily huddle schedule, weekly team meetings, one on ones, monthly company meetings and planning sessions – the agenda has three items, what is
working, not working and where are you stopped. A problem shared is a problem halved and in most cases solved. This way the exercise creates 
stability, cohesion and transparency. It's better to over communicate and be completely transparent - good news or bad.

Play:
However silly it might sound, games are really useful tools to keep people focused. We are all young at heart and appealing to this is an easy way to
keep engaged.

Be curious:
Look and listen to colleagues and when something amazing happens, celebrate it. We all achieve great things in our roles everyday, yet many fail to 
acknowledge when we go above and beyond the call of duty. It's very easy to forget, especially in the current employment market that most people have a choice about where they choose to spend their time. Recognising people is actually very straightforward and goes a long way to keep everyone motivated. Whether you opt for peer-to-peer recognition, customer feedback or more traditional management discretion, making sure that you have ample opportunity for formal and reward backed 'thank you' and 'good effort' celebrations is key to keeping people engaged and happy.

Hold hands and stick together:
I always remember the times that I was the newbie – quite often a very nerve wrecking time. The sooner someone feels part of something, connected to their colleagues, the vision of what the business is embracing, the sooner that attachment is possible. Wouldn't the world be a better place if
at three o'clock every afternoon we all sat down to milk and cookies? 
Whether it is a regular team lunch, beers after work or something more unusual like a group circus lesson, cooking class or hypnosis show, doing
something as a group that is totally unrelated to what we do at work allows us to reconnect as human beings. The levelling effect of watching the top 
sales person get nervous at the trapeze or highly skilled programmer fail to toss a pancake is great for team morale.

So what I learned in kindergarten applies just as much now as it did then "Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you 

found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play 
and work every day some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together." 

Most of all, Kindergarten was fun. And it's okay to have fun in business.


Edited by: Lawyer Asad

Download 174-page manuscript for free (for 5 days only)

Download 174-page manuscript for free (for 5 days only)

I used to sell the eBook, "Grow Rich While You Sleep" but for the next 5 days, I'm going to give this remarkable manuscript to you for free, for being my loyal subscribers. Click Here To Download for Free It's written by the famous author, Ben Sweeland back in 1962 and here's the description of the book by him... "95% of all human problems stem from a negative mind. This figure includes such traits as timidity, domestic discord, business failure, bad memory, tenseness, unhappiness, worry, etc. You can do something about it... while you sleep! You are a mind with a body attached, not a body with a mind attached! Realize this and you are on your way to self-mastery. This is the new approach to the Conscious Mind through the other level that never sleeps, the Creative Mind. What you will discover is priceless! This book shows how to use the deepest thinking part of you, while you sleep, to get whatever you want out of life . . . money, personal influence, love, respect and admiration. At will, you can direct your Creative Mind to assist you in solving problems . . . making the right decisions ... in creating ways and means of great achievement . . . over night! With this technique you can sleep on it and awake in the morning with answers so clear-cut you will be amazed..." A gift for my subscriber: Grow Rich While You Sleep eBook by Ben Sweeland Your friend, Patric Chan Author, WakeUp Millionaire Circulated by: Lawyer Asad

Five Things that the "Most Beautiful Woman in the World" Taught Us About Innovation

Five Things that the "Most Beautiful Woman in the World" Taught Us About Innovation
Rita J. King
EVP for Business Development, Science House

Whenever we go into the Imagination Room at Science House for inventing sessions, I draw inspiration from thinking about the magnificent Hedy Lamarr. Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna on November 9, 1914, she became internationally famous in 1933, when she became the first actress to appear nude on screen. Her real accomplishments as an inventor, however, are far more dazzling than "the most beautiful woman on the world" was on screen.

Without her, we might not have cell phones, defense satellites and wireless Internet. So what can we learn about innovation from Hedy Lamarr?

1) Take risks. Hedy fled her country and husband in 1937. "It was his game to keep me prisoner," she said, "It had been my game to escape. He lost." On the trip to the United States she landed a Hollywood contract. She also gave herself a new name, Lamarr, after the sea, La Mar.

2) Collaborate. Five years after her film début, at a dinner party in Hollywood, she met an avant-garde composer and shared her idea to protect US radio-guided torpedoes from enemy interference. She left her number in red lipstick on his windshield so the discussion could continue. The pair patented the invention and presented it to the United States Government for a "Secret Communications System" to help defeat Hitler. 

3) Create the Future. Today, the science in this patent serves as the basis for the technology used in cell phones, pagers, wireless Internet and
 defence satellites, to name a few devices. 

4) Don't rush. "The world isn't getting any easier," Hedy Lamarr once said. "With all these new inventions I believe that people are hurried more 
and pushed more... The hurried way is not the right way. You need time for everything, time to work, time to play, time to rest."

5) Be Curious. "Hope and curiosity about the future seemed better than guarantees. That's the way I was. The unknown was always so attractive to me, and still is."

Hedy Lamarr's children created HedyLamarr.org, which reveals some of the details of her life and paintings, including the beautiful one above, by her daughter, Denise Loder Deluca. 


Edited by: Lawyer Asad

Want To Be Taken Seriously? Become a Better Writer

Dave Kerpen

CEO, Likeable Local, NY Times Best-Selling Author & Keynote Speaker

The number of poorly written emails, resumes and blog posts I come across each month is both staggering and saddening. Grammar is off. There are tons of misspellings. Language is much wordier or more complex than necessary. Some things I read literally make no sense at all to me.

Writing is a lost art, and many professionals don't realize how essential a job skill it is. Even if you're not a writer by trade, every time you click "Publish" on a blog, "Post" on a LinkedIn update, or "Send" on an email, you are putting your writing out into the world.

Your writing is a reflection of your thinking. Clear, succinct, convincing writing will differentiate you as a great thinker and a valuable asset to your team.

If you want to be thought of as a smart thinker, you must become a better writer. If you want to be taken seriously by your manager, colleagues, potential employers, clients and prospects, you must become a better writer.

It's not just you who must become a better writer- it's all of us. I'll be the first to admit, I too have had to learn to become a better writer. So here are five ways that I've become a better writer over the last several years:

1) Practice, practice, practice. The old joke comes to mind: A tourist in New York asked a woman on the street, "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" and she replied, "Practice, practice, practice." The truth is, the best way to get better at anything is to do it repeatedly. Write a personal blog or begin that novel you've always wanted to write. Offer to write some content for your company's marketing team. Write a short, interesting LinkedIn update each day. The more you write, the better you'll become at writing. That's why I write here on LinkedIn every Monday and Thursday, no matter what.

2) Say it out loud. I read all of my articles and books out loud before I publish them, and many of my emails out loud as well. It's great to hear my writing the way others will "hear" it as they read. Especially since tone in emails is difficult to convey, it's valuable to say what you're writing aloud, and then consider a quick edit, before you put it out there.

3) Make it more concise. Less is often more, so during my editing process, I'll often ask, "How can I say the same thing in fewer words?" People don't have time to read a long email, or memo, or article, so out of respect for your intended audience, practice making your writing short and sweet. I'd even argue that tweeting has helping me a lot with this, as it obviously limits you to 140 characters. If you're not on Twitter yet, this is another reason to get tweeting.

4) Work on your headlines. A mentor once told me that 50% of your writing is the headline. So, spend equal time and energy working on your headline as you do the piece itself. Whether it's the headline of a blog post or an inter-office memo, or a subject line for an email to a sales prospect, your headlines will either grab your reader's attention, and get them interested in what you have to say, or not. Lists and questions work very well as headlines and subject lines. Practice them.

5) Read. Besides practising writing, the number one way to improve your writing skills is to read great work. I read at least one book per month, at least 20 articles per week, and countless tweets, Facebook posts and emails per day. I know we all have limited time, but truly the best way to become a better writer is to become a better reader.

These are my methods for becoming a better writer. 

Edited by: Lawyer Asad

Ever Been Stuck in an "I'm Right; You're Wrong" Conversation?

Gretchen Rubin

Bestselling author

You know the old joke? "The world is divided into two groups: people who divide the world into two groups, and people who don't." I'm definitely in the first category.

I love dividing people into categories:

Abstainers and moderators. Over-buyers and under-buyers. Alchemists and leopards.

Here's a new phenomenon I've tentatively identified: oppositional conversational style.

A person with oppositional conversational style is a person who, in conversation, disagrees with and corrects whatever you say. He or she may do this in a friendly way, or a belligerent way, but this person frames remarks in opposition to whatever you venture.

I noticed this for the first time in a conversation with a guy about social media. Before long, I realized that whatever I'd say, he'd disagree with me. If I said, "X is important," he'd say, "No, actually, Y is important." For two hours. And I could tell that if I'd said, "Y is important," he would've argued for X.

I saw this style again, in a chat with friend's wife who, no matter what casual remark I made, would disagree. "That sounds fun," I observed. "No, not at all," she answered. "That must have been really difficult," I said. "No, for someone like me, it's easy," she answered. Etc.

Since those conversations, I've noticed this phenomenon several times.

Here are my questions about oppositional conversational style:

Have you noticed this, too?

Is OCS a strategy that particular people use consistently? Or is there something about me, or about that particular conversation, that induced these people to use it?

Along those lines, is OCS a way to try to assert dominance, by correction? That's how it feels.

Do people who use OCS recognize this style of engagement in themselves?

Do they have any idea how tiresome it can be?

In the first example, my interlocutor used OCS in a very warm, engaging way. Perhaps, for him, it's a tactic to drive the conversation forward and to keep it interesting. This kind of debate did indeed throw up a lot of interesting insights and information. But it was wearing.

In the second example, the contradictory responses felt like a challenge.

I have a strong tendency towards belligerence—for instance, it's one reason I basically quit drinking—and I could easily fall into OCS. (I just hope I don't exhibit OCS already, which is quite possible.)

But I do recognize that to be on the receiving end of the oppositional conversational style—to have someone keep telling you that you're wrong, over and over—is not pleasant.

Even in my first example, when the OCS had a fun, friendly spirit, it took a lot of self-command for me to stay calm and un-defensive. Many points could have been made in a less "Let me set you straight" way.

And in the second example, I felt patronized. I was trying to make pleasant conversation, and she kept contradicting me. It was all I could do not to roll my eyes and retort, "Fine,whatever, actually I don't care if you had fun or not."

Now, I'm not arguing that everyone should agree all the time. Nope. I love a debate (and I was trained as a lawyer, which definitely made me more comfortable, perhaps too comfortable, with confrontation). But it's not much fun when every single statement in a casual conversation is met with,"Nope, you're wrong; I'm right." Skillful conversationalists can explore disagreements and make points in ways that feel constructive and positive, rather than combative or corrective.

What do you think? Do you recognize it in other people–or in yourself?

Edited by: Lawyer Asad

Can You Hear Me?

Beth Comstock, CMO at GE

I was speechless. Untypically so.

Laryngitis left me with no voice. And the timing was horrible as I was in the middle of an important week of meetings with key customers and influencers. Try as I did, my feeble voice couldn't break through.

With no choice but to shut up, it was time to be schooled in active listening. With no time spent worrying about what to say next, what clever quip to interject, I was able to soak up the conversation of others—to luxuriate in listening.

Too often in business, conversation becomes a race to get all of our points in before someone else can. Trampling over others to make sure our voice is loudest, our words last to be lasting.

Unfortunately, and too often, the art of listening gets lost when you need it most – when faced with bad news or too many distractions. My pet peeve is the lost opportunity of a sales call, mine included!) Maybe you've been here too: "We want to understand all about you, but first, a brief introduction about ourselves." Fifty minutes later they're still waxing on about their offerings. And then with ten minutes left, they turn to you saying, "But we need to hear from you." You try to beat the clock, speaking faster than any human can comprehend. Connection lost, opportunities missed.

"Listening is the most critical business skill of all," says Bernie Ferrari, John Hopkins B-school dean and author of Power Listening. "The difference between great and mediocre business leaders is the ability to listen."

You mean we have to stop to listen? I'm a world-class multi-tasker but I grudgingly admit that I'm a more effective listener when focused.

Bernie asserts that you make better decisions when you listen well because you're taking in new ideas and honing your critical thinking skills. The best listening comes about by keeping quiet most of the time and asking probing questions when you do engage. I've been on the receiving end of those questions from Bernie as a consultant. When done well, they show not only that you were heard but give you an opportunity to be more thoughtful in return, even to learn.

In my week of voiceless exile, I was reminded how my voiced self often interrupts before the other person can finish the thought. Curiosity is what propels me to interject, but that can be distracting. I also realized how many times I rush to cover too many topics in one conversation, like there's a jackpot at the end. Or that I think I've heard someone's words, but wasn't paying close enough attention to consider the thought.

My lesson: Soaking up a conversation shouldn't be a luxury. Stop, listen, ask.

Yes, I can hear you now.

Edited by: Lawyer Asad

7 Things That Make Great Entrepreneurs Tick

7 Things That Make Great Entrepreneurs Tick

Steve Tobak
is a management consultant, executive coach, and former senior executive of the technology industry. 
He's managing partner of Invisor Consulting, a Silicon Valley-based strategy consulting firm.


All the greats--Mayer, Page, Zuckerberg--have these things in common, and this list is what makes them better than all the rest.
Silicon Valley has gazillions of successful entrepreneurs and brilliant innovators.
You can't walk down the street in Palo Alto or Mt. View without bumping into two or three top executives who started out in a little garage shop, research lab, or college dorm room.
Funny thing is, they all seem to have unique outward qualities, some more eccentric than others. Marissa Mayer is a high-fashion workaholic. Mark 
Zuckerberg is obsessed with the product. Larry Page is a geeky introvert. Larry Ellison is an adrenaline freak that races yachts, flies planes, and buys entire islands. All that may be true, but it's a big mistake to think that defines them.
You see, everyone gets so caught up in the public personae and the hype that it's easy to forget just how much these folks have going on under the
hood. I've worked with loads of them and one thing I can say for sure, they will surprise you.   

One minute you're getting grilled about your crazy idea and the next minute the guy's not only on board but asking why you can't get it done sooner. It
can really freak you out if you're not used to it. Not only that, but it's dangerous to take everything they say and do verbatim. They're not infallible. They don't walk on water, you know.
In any case, if you want to know more about what makes these people tick, what makes them the way they are, here are seven things that, in my 
observation, successful entrepreneurs seem to have in common.

They all have a process. It's the strangest thing but every single one of them seems to have their own process for thinking things through, making 
decisions, whatever. They're very process-oriented. Sometimes they don't even know it. Also they definitely do not want you inside their heads so 
mum's the word, if you know what I mean.  

They trust their gut. It seems they've spent their entire lives being self-absorbed or self-sufficient. As a result, they're extremely self-confident when it comes to trusting their own instincts and following whatever it is that inspires them. They will listen to others -- a trusted few -- but they'll still make the final call in the end.

They have a passion for what they do. That's why they do it. Whether it's writing software code or coming up with the next hot gadget, they love it.
 It inspires them. It makes them feel safe, comfortable. It draws them like a powerful magnet. They feel at home doing it. And there's nothing else they'd rather do. Nothing.

They're unusually quick on the uptake. They can assimilate data, come to grips with a situation, or grasp something that took you two hours to 
understand in what seems like a heartbeat. It goes without saying that they're unusually smart.    

They're born problem solvers. To them, problem solving is a fantastic game. They get off on it. They live for it. And they're the best at it.
Once they understand the problem, they revel in bringing their intellect, inspiration, and observations to bear in coming up with the right solution,
plan, decision, whatever's appropriate for the situation.

They've got something to prove. It's not usually clear -- to you or to them -- who they need to prove it to, but I really don't think it matters.
They all just seem to have this relentless need to achieve, to make things happen, to do great things. It drives them and motivates them.

They work their tails off. Their work is, to a great extent, their life. That's sort of an obvious result when you consider how passionate they are
about what they do and how driven they are to accomplish great things. And you won't always see them working, either. Day or night, at work or at home, they usually have a hard time turning it off.



One more thing. If you end up working with some of these folks, the worst thing you can do is be in awe of them. They don't generally like yes-men and are quite impatient with folks who don't add value. They have you around for a reason. Do what you do best and be straight with them. That's generally the way to go.


Edited by: Lawyer Asad



 

Six Powerful Ways to Stand Out at Work

Jeff Haden, Ghostwriter, speaker, Inc. columnist

Great employees spend the majority of their time helping other people succeed: Their company, their employees, their customers and vendors and suppliers... the list goes on and on.

Great employees also spend some time helping themselves succeed, both for "selfish" reasons and because their success creates success for others.

To succeed you must stand out from the crowd. Here are six ways:

Be first with a purpose.

Lots of employees, managers, and business owners are the first to arrive each day. That's great, but what do you do with that time? Organize your thoughts? Get a jump on your email?

Instead of taking care of your stuff, do something visibly worthwhile for the company. Take care of unresolved problems from the day before. Set things up so it's easier for employees to hit the ground running when they come in. Chip away at an ongoing project others ignore.

Don't just be the one who turns on or off the lights – be the one who gets in early or stays late in order to get things done. Not only will your performance stand out, you'll also start to...

Be known for something specific.

Meeting standards, however lofty those standards may be, won't help you stand out.

So go above the norm. Be the leader known for turning around struggling employees. Be the owner who makes a few deliveries a week to personally check in with customers. Be the manager who consistently promotes from within. Be known as the employee who responds quicker, acts faster, or always follows up.

Pick a worthwhile mission, then excel at that mission. People will notice.

Create your own side project.

Excelling at an assigned project is expected. Excelling at a side project helps you stand out.

For example, years ago I decided to create a Web-based employee handbook my then-employer could put on the company Intranet. I worked on it at home on my own time. Some managers liked it but the HR manager didn't so it died an inglorious death.

I was disappointed, but the company wasn't "out" anything, and soon after I was selected for a high visibility company-wide process improvement team because my little project made me "that guy."

The same applies for a business owner. Experiment on a new process or service with a particular customer in mind. The customer will appreciate how you tried, without being asked, to better meet their needs, and your business will become "that business."

Put your muscle where your mouth is.

Lots of people take verbal stands. Few take a stand and put effort behind their opinions.

Say you think a project has gone off the rails; instead of just pointing out its flaws so you can show everyone how smart you are, jump in and help fix it.

Everyone talks about problems. The people who help fix them stand out.

Show a little of your personal side.

Personal interests help other people to identify and remember you. That's a huge advantage for a new employee or a company competing in a crowded market.

Just make sure your personal interests don't overshadow professional accomplishments. Being "the guy who does triathlons" is fine, but being "the guy who is always training and travelling to triathlons so we can never reach him when we need him" is not.

Let people know a little about you; a few personal details add colour and depth to your professional image.

Work harder than everyone else.

Nothing – nothing – is a substitute for hard work. Look around: How many people are working as hard as they can?

Very few.

The best way to stand out is to out-work everyone else.

It's also the easiest way, because you'll be the only one trying.

Edited by: Lawyer Asad

9 Subtle Traits Of The Most Talented Leaders

Jeff Haden, Inc. 

Good bosses look good on paper. Great bosses look great in person; their actions show their value.

Yet some bosses go even farther. They're remarkable—not because of what you see them do but what you don't see them do.

Where remarkable bosses are concerned, what you see is far from all you get:

1. They forgive... and they forget.

When an employee makes a mistake—especially a major mistake—it's easy to forever view that employee through the perspective of that mistake.

I know. I've done it.

But one mistake, or one weakness, is just one part of the whole person.

Great bosses are able to step back, set aside a mistake, and think about the whole employee.

Remarkable bosses are also able to forget that mistake, because they know that viewing any employee through the lens of one incident may forever impact how they treat that employee.

And they know the employee will be able to tell.

To forgive may be divine, but to forget can be even more divine.

2. They transform company goals into the employees' personal goals.

Great bosses inspire their employees to achieve company goals.

Remarkable bosses make their employees feel that what they do will benefit them as much as it does the company. After all, whom will you work harder for: A company or yourself?

Whether they get professional development, an opportunity to grow, a chance to shine, a chance to flex their favorite business muscles, employees who feel a sense of personal purpose almost always outperform employees who feel a sense of company purpose.

And they have a lot more fun doing it.

Remarkable bosses know their employees well enough to tap the personal, not just the professional.

3. They look past the action to the emotion and motivation.

Sometimes employees make mistakes or simply do the wrong thing. Sometimes they take over projects or roles without approval or justification. Sometimes they jockey for position, play political games, or ignore company objectives in pursuit of personal goals.

When that happens it's easy to assume they don't listen or don't care. But almost always there's a deeper reason: They feel stifled, they feel they have no control, they feel marginalized or frustrated—or maybe they are just trying to find a sense of meaning in their work that pay rates and titles can never provide.

Effective bosses deal with actions. Remarkable bosses search for the underlying issues that, when overcome, lead to much bigger change for the better.

4. They support without seeking credit.

A customer is upset. A vendor feels shortchanged. A coworker is frustrated. Whatever the issue, good bosses support their employees. They know that to do otherwise undermines the employee's credibility and possibly authority.

Afterword, most bosses will say to the employee, "Listen, I took up for you, but..."

Remarkable bosses don't say anything. They feel supporting their employees—even if that shines a negative spotlight on themselves—is the right thing to do and is therefore unremarkable.

Even though we all know it isn't.

5. They make fewer public decisions.

When a decision needs to be made, most of the time the best person to make that decision isn't the boss. Most of the time the best person is the employee closest to the issue.

Decisiveness is a quality of a good boss. Remarkable bosses can be decisive but often in a different way: They decide they aren't the right person and then decide who is the right person.

They do it not because they don't want to avoid making those decisions but because they know they shouldn't make those decisions.

6. They don't see control as a reward.

Many people desperately want to be the boss so they can finally call the shots.

Remarkable bosses don't care about control. As a result they aren't seen to exercise control.

They're seen as a person who helps.

7. They allow employees to learn their own lessons.

It's easy for a boss to debrief an employee and turn a teachable moment into a lesson learned.

It's a lot harder to let employees learn their own lessons, even though the lessons we learn on our own are the lessons we remember forever.

Remarkable bosses don't scold or dictate; they work together with an employee to figure out what happened and what to do to correct the mistake.

They help find a better way, not a disciplinary way.

Great employees don't need to be scolded or reprimanded. They know what they did wrong.

Sometimes staying silent is the best way to ensure they remember.

8. They let employees have the ideas.

Years ago I worked in manufacturing and my boss sent me to help move the production control offices. It was basically manual labor, but for two days it put me in a position to watch and hear and learn a lot about how the plant's production flow was controlled.

I found it fascinating and later I asked my boss if I could be trained to fill in as a production clerk. Those two days sparked a lifelong interest in productivity and process improvement.

Years later he admitted he sent me to help move their furniture. "I knew you'd go in there with your eyes wide open," he said, "and once you got a little taste I knew you'd love it."

Remarkable bosses see the potential in their employees and find ways to let them have the ideas, even though the outcome was what they intended all along.

9. They always go home feeling they could have done better.

Leadership is like a smorgasbord of insecurity. Bosses worry about employees and customers and results. You name it, they worry about it.

That's why remarkable bosses go home every day feeling they could have done things a little better or smarter. They wish they had treated employees with a little more sensitivity or empathy.

Most importantly, they always go home feeling they could have done more to fulfill the trust their employees place in them.

And that's why, although you can't see it, when they walk in the door every day remarkable bosses make a silent commitment to do their jobs even better than they did yesterday.

And then they do.

Edited by: Lawyer Asad

Top 5 Skills Every Leader Must Have

Top 5 Skills Every Leader Must Have

Steve Tobak is a management consultant, executive coach, and former senior
executive of the technology industry. 

He's managing partner of Invisor Consulting, a Silicon Valley-based strategy consulting firm.

The world moves fast and if you can't keep up, your company is doomed. Here are five skills that every leader must have to run a company in today's 
culture.
A few years ago, I saw a video by a Harvard professor on competences for adapting to a changing world. Frankly, it was embarrassing. It was the 
biggest load of pseudo-intellectual garbage I'd ever heard. Still, the world is changing. It's becoming a more complex place. I guess that's always been the case, but the rate of change appears to be accelerating. Given that's the case, then what are the real capabilities will people need to distinguish themselves--to become the leaders, the innovators, the success stories of a new age?

Fortunately, as a veteran of the high-tech industry, I've known and worked with some of the most capable and accomplished folks around. Here are five
competences that not only set them apart, but are becoming more and more important all the time. No, they're not new-age business school jargon. 
Some aren't even new. But what's important is that they work. 

1. Drown out the noise.

We live and work in a world that's so overloaded with information, communication, and gadgets that fighting that irresistible and constant tug
to text, tweet, and check our email is becoming harder and harder all the time. That trend is not likely to change any time soon.

Ability to focus and prioritize has always been critical to success in just about any field, but these days, managing distraction and not succumbing to its addictive qualities has become remarkably challenging for even the most disciplined among us.
Make no mistake. If you can't focus, you can't get things done. And if you can't get things done, somebody else will.

2. Recognize the bullsh*t.

When you question assumptions, claims, and viewpoints instead of just accepting them as gospel, as in "I saw it on the internet so it must be true," that's called critical thinking. It's fundamental for smart decision-making. And that, in turn, is key to being successful at just about anything. The concept dates back thousands of years to Socrates and Buddha's teachings. If you question conventional wisdom, challenge the status quo,
and avoid collectivism and groupthink, you're in good company. They're all facets of the same concept.  
Here's the thing. There's so much garbage out there in the cloud, in social media, in blogs, on TV, in self-help books -- you name it -- that your ability to question what's real and what isn't, to reason logically and not generalize from a single data point, is more critical today than ever before.
And, in time, the world is only going to become more and more complex and, that's right, full of stuff.   

3. Be more than an avatar.
It's ironic that, with all the hoopla over personal branding, self-expression, and the "Me" generation, I find that people are becoming more and more like internet avatars every day. In other words, there's a tendency to hide behind our own social media creations. To become sound bites personified.
More than ever, we need a sense of humility and self-awareness to remind us that we're flesh and blood humans. That we're not always the insanely great business leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, partners, parents, whatever, that we hold ourselves out to be.
Not only that, but the sheer volume of noise and time we waste on mindless distraction makes it that much harder to stay in touch with ourselves, to be quiet and reflect on what's going on inside, to understand what our emotions are trying to tell us.  And don't even get me started on political correctness, that insidious worldwide trend that dumbs us all down to the lowest common denominator so no single individual is ever left out or made to feel uncomfortable or, God forbid, offended.
In a world of indistinguishable lemmings, where everyone tries to be different and, in so doing, ends up behaving exactly like everyone else, those who are genuine and self-aware will have a big advantage.

4. Truly connect with people.
Communication has always been the means by which great leaders achieve great things. But these days, communication occurs in sound bites, status
updates, text messages, and tweets of 140 characters or less. More and more, communication is one-to-many, not one-to-one. The problem with that is it's mostly superficial and nobody's got time to pay attention to even a tiny fraction of all the gigabytes being blasted at
them every day.
As for all the online social networking we do, none of it's even fractionally effective when compared with a simple real-time discussion or meeting.
Sure, the ability to write and speak effectively is perhaps more important today than ever before. But if you have that unique ability to listen and really hear what people are saying, to empathize, to really relate and truly connect with folks, then chances are you'll be writing tomorrow's success stories.

5. Get things done.
The idea that successful executives, entrepreneurs, and business leaders are typically driven by high aspirations is nothing but a popular myth. 
Most of those people didn't get to where they are by walking around with their heads in the clouds. They got there by putting one foot in front of the other and getting stuff done.
If they're not motivated by grandiose dreams, then what does drive successful people? It's usually one of three things: their job and a strong sense of personal responsibility, out of necessity to put food on the table and a roof over their family's heads, or to bring a product to market they think is cool and that people might actually want or need.
Regardless of the reason, they get people working toward a common goal. They deliver the goods. They get the job done. They satisfy the needs of 
their customers. And in so doing, they take care of their families and stakeholders. That's how things work in the real world.
These days we have more rhetoric, debate, analysis, studies, theories and research than ever before. We have more grandiose ideals than ever before. We have more rules and regulations than ever before. The challenge to get things done has never been greater and the need for leaders with that capability has never been more imperative.
That's what I think you and your children will need to adapt to a changing world. Now, what do you think?


Edited by: Lawyer Asad

The Secret of Love (Spoiler Alert)

Deepak Chopra MD (official)
in

The Internet has taken up the slack from print media by offering tips on love and relationships, which pop up on home pages, in tweets and in news teasers many times a day. If the secret to lasting romance could be shared like a recipe for cinnamon buns, our problems would be over. But love isn't a fact, formula, or definable in words.

Love is a process, perhaps the most mysterious one in human psychology. No one knows what creates love as a powerful bond that is so full of meaning. If romance was only a heady brew of hormones, genetic inheritance and sex drive, all we'd need is better data to explain it. But love is transporting. It carries us beyond our everyday selves and makes reality shine with an inner light. The reverse can also happen. We crash to earth when the wear and tear of relationships makes love fade.

The process of love is kept alive by evolving and not getting stuck. Infatuation is an early stage of the process. You bond with another person as if by alchemy, but in time the ego returns with the claims of "I, me, and mine." At that point love must change. Two people must negotiate how much to share, how much to surrender and how much to stand their ground. It would be tragic if romance faded into everyday familiarity, but it doesn't have to.

Beyond the stage of two egos negotiating for their own interests, there is deepening love. It doesn't try to turn the present into the past. A married couple of twenty years isn't still infatuated with one other. So what keeps the process alive? For me, the answer was revealed by reading a startling sentence from the Upanishads, which are like a textbook of spiritual understanding. The sentence says, "You do not love a spouse for the sake of the spouse but for the sake of the self."

At first glance this seems like a horrible sentiment: We all love on a personal basis and we expect to be loved the same way, for ourselves. But if "self" means your everyday personality, there is much that isn't very lovable about each of us and as a marriage or relationship unfolds, there's a guarantee that our partners will see those unlovable things more clearly. Even a knight in shining armor might want to save more than one damsel, and even saint must use deodorant once in a while.

In the world's wisdom tradition, "love" and "self" are both universal. They exist beyond the individual personality. The secret of love is to expand beyond the personal. When people say that they want unconditional love, they often imply that they want to be loved despite their shortcomings, issues and quirks. But that's nearly impossible if love remains at the personal level. At a certain point, if you begin to see love itself as your goal, universal love is more powerful and secure than personal love.

The poet Rabindranath Tagore described the spiritual side of love in a single expression" "Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation." The gift of human awareness is that we can locate the source of creation in ourselves. By going deeper into the self, asking "Who am I?" without settling for a superficial answer, the ego-personality fades. A sense of the true self begins to dawn, and it is this self that exists in contact with love as the only reality.

The journey becomes more fascinating if someone else travels with you. Life isn't about abstractions; it's about experience. If you have a beloved who stands for the feeling of love, bonding, and affection, your journey has a focus that can't be supplied merely by thinking. The experiences that love bring include surrender, devotion, selflessness, giving, gratitude, appreciation, kindness and bliss. So if the phrase "universal love" seems daunting or improbable to you, break it down into these smaller experiences. Pursue them, and you will be traveling in the direction of your source, where the true self and true love merge.

That's where my spoiler alert comes in. Announcing the secret of love cuts short the actual experience. It doesn't always help to know what's coming, because you might fall into exaggerated expectations and fall short. It's better and more realistic to become aware that love is now your personal project. Show kindness and gratitude. Speak about what your beloved means to you. Every step on this journey works on behalf of the two of you but also on behalf of the self that unites you at the deepest level.

Deepak Chopra, MD, author of more than 70 books with 21 New York Times best sellers in both fiction and non-fiction including "The Path to Love" and music CD, "The Secrets of Love."

Edited by: Lawyer Asad

Strategy? Gut or Intuition?

Strategy? Gut or Intuition?

Saeed Al Muntafiq
Mentor at Rise

An old Friend and mentor of mine once told me, when storming the castle, 
follow these rules:

• Make sure it's at night. The darkness provides an element of surprise but 
more importantly, it allows you to be stealth.

• Make sure you take out the snipers on the top of the castle. That way you
won't get attacked from the top.

• Make sure you don't try to attack. Commit to attack and capture. It's do or die.

I have followed this without question but over the years I have added a few of my own thumb rules. But let me start at the beginning.
And the beginning of all success is strategy.

What exactly is strategy?
Simply put, a business strategy is a set of guiding principles that, when communicated and adopted in the organization, generates a desired pattern
of decision making.

A strategy is therefore about how people throughout the organization should make decisions and allocate resources in order to accomplish key 
objectives. A good strategy provides a clear roadmap, consisting of a set of guiding principles or rules, that define the actions people in the 
business should take (and not take) and the things they should prioritize (and not prioritize) to achieve desired goals.

Michael Porter argues that operational effectiveness, although necessary to superior performance, is not sufficient, because its techniques are easy to
imitate. In contrast, the essence of strategy is choosing a unique and valuable position rooted in systems of activities that are much more 
difficult to match.

Porter's seminal theory has been so insightful that no one has thought of challenging or changing it since 1996.
But times are changing and more importantly organizations are changing and with them so are business practices.
I firmly believe that strategy is not only about business. It should be used in everyone's day to day life. Look around you and you will see how
extensively it is used in other walks of life: politics, military, negotiations,
So if you want to learn the process of putting a strategy together. STOP READING THIS ARTICLE. Get on line type strategy process and you will get 
more than 100 sites to learn from
But if you want to learn something different then here we go.
I am here to tell you about Intuition.
The problem lies not in what strategists are trained to do: Porter's perspective is powerful—so powerful that it has dominated both the 
teaching and the practice of business strategy for 30 years.

The problem lies instead in what strategic leaders are not trained to do. In caricature, Porter's view casts strategists as practitioner economists 
who expertly analyse and manage market forces. I suggest that strategic leaders must also be practitioner psychologists who expertly analyse and 
manage their own and others' thought processes.

Executives should trust their gut instincts and be masters of "theatre". If you want to convince a group of influential people or peers about a new
plan, or a program or an initiative that you want to implement, take out the snipers first. Identify the most influential, take them out for a coffee, bounce the idea and to a large extent try and make him or her believe that the idea is his.

When you are presenting a new idea, be stealthy about it. Don't spend an hour or more talking about it. Float the idea and sit back. There's a
reason you have two ears and one mouth. Listen more than you speak.
Throw the seed, let the team water it. Similar in many ways to the way we manage change. Whether it is the passing of a near one or a new idea in an organization. We don't use strategy for change management in organizations: it's never about process, it's about
instinct.
A strategic person needs the ability to be intuitive. Develop your third eye, your sixth sense. Everyone is born with it, very few develop it. No text book or professor will teach you this, but it is the most important lesson of all.

Train yourself to anticipate before it happens. Much like F1 drivers. At 200 mph the driver has to literally divine and 
foresee and then counteract. He has no time at all to wait for a move and then decide what to do. That lapse will likely kill him. So he cultivates
and disciplines himself to react before the act. Should he under steer, or over steer? Should he head for a pit stop on lap 12 or wait till the lead
car goes in to refuel? Split second decisions that can alter fate and make or break a champion. And although he has all the sci fi gadgets he needs to
help him take the call. At the end it comes down to his instinct.

So here's the lesson.
Use your gut if you want the glory.
Because: THE BEST WAY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE IS TO CREATE IT.


Edited by: Lawyer Asad

A One-Time Motel Maid Looks Back on Success, Then & Now

Jennifer Openshaw

in

My experience as a young girl of what the term "work ethic" really meant began with a fib.

I was 14, growing up in southern California. My mother had divorced when I was 5, left to raise me and my two younger brothers. She didn't have a formal education, so she had to work two full-time jobs as a waitress to make ends meet.

I can still remember those afternoons when she'd come home from her first job in a maroon dress and switch into the black and white cocktail outfit for her evening job. I'd watch her put on her makeup, we'd figure out what I'd prepare the boys for dinner, and then she was off, often until midnight.

Riding my navy blue Schwinn bike home from school one day, right down the middle of the street, I had this vision. With absolute clarity and certainty, I knew three things:

1. I never want to end up in my mother's precarious financial situation
2. I wanted to help others reach their own financial independence
3. I knew it was up to me to make these things happen

With that inspiration, I told the manager of the Don Carlos Motel in Dana Point that I was 15, so I could get a work permit to work as a maid. With necessities like phone bills going unpaid, I knew every extra dollar I earned would count. 

Since then, I've started and sold successful companies, worked alongside some of America's top leaders, written books, and achieved financial independence. When I look back at my life now, I feel extraordinarily fortunate. It took a lot of hard work and sacrifices.

But what if was 14 years old today? Would I be able to accomplish the same things in this new highly competitive world with so many global challenges? It seems hard work and sacrifice isn't enough any more. Are college students truly prepared for the world they will be facing over the next thirty years? 

Today, you need to be extremely adaptable. To progress in your career it's not enough to know one thing well. As my friend Sean Harvey, product manager at Google put it when we were speaking to students, "Today, companies aren't hiring for a specific position but rather people who are smart and flexible. The way you demonstrate that is by showing you can do multiple things well."

Good mentoring matters more now than ever. When I was at UCLA, I was very fortunate to have one particular experienced professional take me under his wing and teach me entrepreneurship and business skills that otherwise would have taken years to develop. Some corporate mentoring programs exist, but are hard to come by for teens and young adults.

What's clear to me after advising hundreds of young people on their career paths, colleges still have a long way to go to prepare graduates for all they will encounter in the real working world. 

When I went to UCLA as an undergrad twenty years ago, annual tuition was $722. This year students will fork over $11,000 - but still a bargain compared with quadruple that expense at many top private schools. Now, graduates often wait years to get meaningful employment, dramatically lowering their lifetime earning power by tens of thousands of dollars and dashing any hopes of saving for the future.

My aunt and uncle gave me room and board for $100 a month to help keep my college debts down. But without a pension, could they have done the same for me today?

The lethal combination of unemployment—around 15 percent when you consider those who've stopped looking for work—and anemic wage growth means we are not only at greater financial risk, but we have to take more risks to succeed.

The picture isn't all doom and gloom, of course. The new Internet world of all-the-time connectedness means anyone with a hot idea or product or service can create a business out of virtually nothing. Success can be quick and big, at fractions of the cost of starting companies just a decade ago.

But that success demands more creativity, more "out of the box" thinking - the flexibility Sean Harvey preaches.

And it makes me think a lot about the future my three-year old daughter faces. How can I best prepare her for the world she will encounter twenty years from now? What will that world look like? What experiences do I need to allow her to face now to be ready for whatever comes her way in 2032 and beyond?

Whatever the future brings, I think the best message I'll give her is to believe in herself. Life won't get any easier, but the opportunities will come - as they always have - to those who work hard, adapt as they need to, and trust their abilities.

And maybe on our next trip to the west coast, I'lll show my daughter the spot where the Don Carlos Motel used to be.

Jennifer Openshaw, President of Finect, is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch and author of The Millionaire Zone, based on national research about how those who are financially successful used their networks to get ahead. 

Edited by: Lawyer Asad