Chetan Bhagat - Spark Keep it Shining Speech! - What about the ACTION?

Summary: I liked the speech given by Chetan and they way he showed the 4 thunderstorms of disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation trying to thwart you. What I couldn't notice in his speech was the Umbrella or the Rain Coat to save yourself from these thunderstroms: THE ACTION. 

"Sincere ACTION is the Umbrella that can help you brave the thunderstrom!"

-Sachin Uppal, 1st August 2008

I was reading Chetan Bhagat's speech at the inaugural function of Symbiosis College in Pune, India. He spoke about a simple concept that keeps people kicking and striving to reach higher success. He likes calling it Spark, and urges to keep that Spark Shining. It is nothing but your will power and your passion to achieve something more in life and your continuous drive to reach it. 

Download the complete Speech in a PDF format along with comments here.

In my life I have learnt that this spark comes to you if you are passionate about something and that passion is driven from your goals. If you set your goals (short term and long term) you always have a direction and you can measure and strive harder to achieve the same. Some time back I wrote about Goal Setting and how it's important to achieve and bring a direction to your life.

When I look around I see a lot of talented people and see a lot of them with new ideas but what I fail to see is people taking action to fulfill their dreams. Having a long term and short term goal helps you get focused in your life and you can actually achieve what you have set out to achieve in your dream.

I liked the speech given by Chetan and they way he showed the 4 thunderstorms of disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation trying to thwart you. However, while saying that don't take life too seriously, instead sincerely, what he missed out was a BIG point: ACTION. 

What differentiates people from being Great and not good, is ACTION. Having dreams, living life sincerely and keeping yourself focused towards your goals need ACTION. Not taking life seriously shouldn't make you complacent and shouldn't make you lack in Action. Action comes to you from your passion. There are thousands of people out there who like to talk about doing something great, but how many take action to achieve it? These days with the competition increasing at such a fast pace, you are going to face one or more of these 4 thunderstorms.

Have you ever thought what's going to differentiate you? 

To SUM it up in a sentence:

"Sincere ACTION is the Umbrella that can help you brave the thunderstroms!"

For many people reading this the obvious question would be - How do you do that?

- Set up your goals.
- Be realistic or upgrade your self.
- Believe in yourself.
- Follow some dicipline.
- Breakdown your goals in small milestones.
- Congratulate yourself on achieving milestones. (get yourself a pair of new shoes, a tie, a watch, a perfume or whatever you think you like)
- Bring your passion to everything that you DO.
- Let your passion Permeate  amongst the people around you.
- Show the world that you are not just about the Talk, but you prove it with your small Actions.
- Small steps go a long way to achieve a goal.
- Influence people in believing your goals.
- Ask for help (don't feel ashamed).
- Give help - It's a 2-way road.
- Follow- Ethics and Integrity.
- LIVE your dream and don't give up. Even at a failure learn and stand up again and give your "passionate best shot".

Enough of talking. Let's DO!

Marketing Communication Primer – What’s The Future? - Series

Marketing Communication – What’s The Future? - Series

Today I am starting this new series on my blog on Marketing communication, What’s the future?

Premise:-

With the B-Schools still teaching 4 Ps of marketing to MBA students while preparing them for businesses, the students face a stark reality when they sit for Interviews. They realize within 2 minutes of interview, that this is not what the companies are looking for.

Wow! “I worked my ass off to learn so much about marketing in my B-School and you are telling me this is not what you are looking for?” – This could be a reality check question running in mind of any B-School passout. Well the cruel answer is “YES”.

Do we blame the education for this mismatch? “No”. Then what do we do?

This series of Marketing Communication primer is going to help all fresh graduates, Marcom professionals, Strategic Marketing Professionals and Hiring Managers to see the difference in various levels of marketing, as well as, what’s the NEXT big things in Marketing to look for.

Causes for aberration:-

The prime reason why people get confused or are not well prepared for what they are looking for in their role in marketing is the lack of understanding about the two levels of Marketing.

Two Broad Levels of Marketing:
1. Strategic Marketing attempts to determine how an organization competes against its competitors in a market place. In particular, it aims at generating a competitive advantage relative to its competitors.
2. Operational Marketing executes marketing functions to attract and keep customers and to maximize the value derived for them, as well as to satisfy the customer with prompt services and meeting the customer expectations. Operational Marketing includes the determination of the marketing mix.

It’s very important for people to understand that Strategic Marketing is a function of a Sr. Marketing Professionals where the person in charge has very well mastered the Operational Marketing.

Demystifying Strategic Marketing:- In simple words it’s the Visioning Strategy linked with the execution planning. This would require the below mentioned functions:
a) Understanding Business Objectives / Goals
-Annual X % increase in revenue of a product line
-Retention and growth of Y accounts in Z geography.
-A % market share for this service / product.
-C no of competitor accounts to be captured etc.
These are some examples of wider business goals that a CEO would have in his mind.

b) Converting these business goals into plans like:- Annual / Bi-Annual / 5 Yearly, is what a senior Marketing Professional (marketing and sales director/VP/SVP) would look at and come up with a strategic plan to support the larger business objectives.
-Identifying milestones in the plan.
-Broad annual metrics to be achieved based on sales data from past or industry averages etc. these are few examples to illustrate.

c) Execution Strategy: - This is is one of the most neglected portion from a strategic perspective. Ram Charan, Author of book, Execution, stresses on this point in his book and calls execution as an essential part of strategy.
Without a clearly defined execution strategy all this is just a Bird’s Eye-view approach to say things. A very clearly defined execution strategy and plan is something which can really make these things happen. The execution strategy might look at various activities which can support the annual plans in the previous step.
-Resources required – Hiring/Training etc
-Commission and incentive buffers / Employee benefits
-Media strategy
-IT Infrastructure
-Strategic Alliances and partnerships etc.
-Tactical challenges and solutions

d) Handover of Plans:- Communicating the plans company wide to ensure effective information dissemination etc. Continuous follow-up etc.

Demystifying Operational Marketing:- In simple words, leveraging various channels / media, to generate demand and achieve organizational objectives.

4 Ps of marketing:
In popular usage, "marketing" is the promotion of products, especially advertising and branding. However, in professional usage the term has a wider meaning which recognizes that marketing is customer centered. Products are often developed to meet the desires of groups of customers or even, in some cases, for specific customers. E. Jerome McCarthy divided marketing into four general sets of activities. His typology has become so universally recognized that his four activity sets, the Four Ps, have passed into the language.
The four Ps are:
-Product: The product aspects of marketing deal with the specifications of the actual goods or services, and how it relates to the end-user's needs and wants. The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support.
-Pricing: This refers to the process of setting a price for a product, including discounts. The price need not be monetary - it can simply be what is exchanged for the product or services, e.g. time, energy, psychology or attention.
-Promotion: This includes advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling, and refers to the various methods of promoting the product, brand, or company.
-Placement or distribution refers to how the product gets to the customer; for example, point of sale placement or retailing. This fourth P has also sometimes been called Place, referring to the channel by which a product or services is sold (e.g. online vs. retail), which geographic region or industry, to which segment (young adults, families, business people), etc.
I am not going to focus on these 4 Ps of marketing, however, I would keep them in mind as well as showcase the Future of Marketing Communication to all.

Closing Remarks:- In my coming postings: while these 4 Ps might be the basis for operational marketing I will introduce the
-5th P of Marketing.
-4 “A”s of Marketing
-Web and Internet as Business Models of Future marketing
-Newer and Exciting Channels and Media of marketing
-New strategies for Business Development
-Strategic Advances in positioning

And more…Please share your comments to help me improve my postings.

Loyalty and Employee Attrition Rate

In recent times I have been reading about "Employee Loyalty" and "Employee Attrition Rate". A lot of organizations worldwide face this challenge of employee attrition, where they hire the best and the brightest in the industry. However, after 2-3 years of stay in the company and learning things people think they know everything and they decide to move on.

Well I do not agree to this behaviour, however, reflecting on my previous job hops it's strange that unknowingly I myself have done the same. "Unknowingly" yes, unknowingly...when today I reflect upon my previous 5 years I see having changed 3 companies already. Which essentially means 1.5 yrs on an average is what I stayed with those companies and I didn't realize till now until I think about it...that, I too moved on thinking I know everything. Strange but true. Well then just a month back I was thinking after a review meeting and hearing something very important from my Boss..."I have to think long term and what I was demanding is a very short sighted demand."

I felt a little disheartened and unsatisfied. However, I then went back to home and started talking to my wife about it and she said...hold on....come out of your present thinking and look at it objectively. Yes, I realized, I was unpractical for a moment and unreasonable too and that's when I decided, ok, let me introspect. Well I don't know it all. I need to learn a lot. And this is the right place and is in the right time over here. So let me re-look at the way I am looking at things.

Hey, I just moved out of the feeling of "disloyalty" which was developing in me...and yes it helped me grow as a person.

Question: What is "loyalty" anyways?
Dictionary: The act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action

Answer: Infosys CEO Narayan Murthy once said:” Love Your Job But Never Fall In Love With Your Company, Because You Never Know When It Stops Loving You."
Well, I am not sure in what context he said that, however, an interesting statement from a company's CEO who runs a company of over 60,000 employees.

So does that mean you should be loyal to your work and nothing else?
Well, I feel if I am loyal to my work, I am loyal to the people who assigned me the work. I am loyal to the people who thought I would be the right fit to do that job. I am loyal to the company who decided to hire me to do that job. I am loyal to my family to whom I promised I will earn and give them a good life.

So does that mean I should be loyal to my work and my company and my family always? Well answer is YES. However, I have 2 questions to ask readers...

What about my company being Loyal to me?
Where does this disloyalty actually arise?

Is it a One-Way-Street? That I keep being loyal to my employer and my employer can take a decision to let me go whenever they want to? Isn’t that disloyalty to the employee that you decide to let some one go and don't even bother to inform him about it, if, any corrective action can be taken?

There were days in my country, India, when people use to join one company and retire from the same company in there entire career. Why doesn't it happen again? Well, it's a 2-way street now. Both employers and employees are disloyal to each other OR is it that we don't communicate enough? Is it that, if we have our issues, we do not communicate them well in advance, to find a solution? I am not sure...what are the reasons...but I feel it can be corrected.

As I always say, communication is the KEY to success. If people communicate with each other about their feelings, about their opinions and what they think is right and wrong, these "Disloyal" situations can be avoided.

However, I have another question:

Question:Have we become so impatient and eccentric that we don't have the time and patience to talk and be honest?

Answer: May be yes. We do not have patience to help people. We are bothered about our own growth. We are bothered about "what's in it for me?” So essentially, it's neither the employer being disloyal to the employee, nor the employee being disloyal to the company. It comes down to Individuals. We as individuals are responsible for our actions and our decisions. And if we are taking these decisions based on our attitudes towards looking at things, as self centered people, we are more or less bound to take irrational decisions.

There are so many companies out there, which have survived for over 100 years. Have they had people taking decisions based on there attitudes and self centered behavior, today, those companies would have died, because, the success of companies is due to the people who work there.

So what does this all mean? - Loyalty is nothing but an individual's decision based on his attitude? Yes, I feel so, and if that is the case, I, as a person should spend most of the time on keeping my attitude the best and I can make most of the work done well, and I can be "Loyal" to my work, my company, my family. I need to communicate and help others communicate about any issues. I need to keep the channel open and try to keep my attitude positive and healthy always.

I can always sit and talk about it instead I will take action and work on my attitude and communicate whenever required.

Lastly, a healthy positive communicative attitude from an employer and employee can help solve these attrition / loyalty / disloyalty issues easily. Nobody should wait, instead start acting on this.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think about it.

Human Assets Expansion Congress 2007

www.humanassetsindia.com 19th - 20th November 2007 MUMBAI

Leading Business Information Company, www.naseba.com, is holding Human Assets Expansion Congress in India.

Innovative strategies in retention, attrition management, training and development, HR MIS systems, Performance and leadership management and more...complete Human Asset management is all what the Congress discusses.

Human Assets Expansion India is a C-level, strategic executive congress, which provides the opportunity for HR directors to meet with global industry suppliers and industry experts in a true business-to-business environment. With prescheduled one-to-one business meetings and educational sessions that are strictly limited to upper-level executives providing them a Real-Life Case Study Format with Ultimate Networking Opportunities.

Key Discussion Topics

• Innovation in Talent Retention, Development and Growth
• Back to Basics: Human Asset Management
• Defining and installing new values, attitudes and behavior within an organization
• Challenges of handling changing aspirational management of the new generation
• Leadership Challenges


Quick Links

• Event website
http://www.humanassetsindia.com
• Complete Agenda
http://www.humanassetsindia.com/index.html?pagecode=agenda
• Complete list of speakers
http://www.humanassetsindia.com/index.html?pagecode=speakers
• Event Testimonials
http://www.humanassetsindia.com/index.html?pagecode=testimonials
• Registration page
http://register.humanassetsindia.com
• Contact page
http://www.humanassetsindia.com/index.html?pagecode=contact


Key Speakers 2007

• JN Amrolia, Executive Director, Ashok Leyland
• Dr Anadi S Pande,VP of Corporate Planning & Strategy,Hero Honda Motors
• Muralidhar Rao, President & ChiefOperating Officer,NIS Sparta
• Sudheesh Venkatesh, Head of HR,Tesco
• Dr. Chandra Mauli Dwivedi,Group President Human Resources,Financial Technology Group
• Joji S Gill, Head of HR,Microsoft

What previous year's attendees said…

"Very impressed. I would be more than happy to present at any of
naseba's event functions."
HR Director, Honeywell

"This event is the perfect way for direct communication between
solution providers and those seeking development within their
companies."
HR Director, Gulf Air

"Great platform for knowledge and best practice sharing on the
available HR tools to streamline processes and make HR more
effective."
HR Director, Siemens

For any queries contact Charan Varghese - Project Director

email: charanv@naseba.com

tel: +91 80 30280562 - fax: + 91 80 30280555 http://www.naseba.com
____________________________________________________________

Goal Setting!

What will you achieve if you don't know what you want to achieve?

GOAL setting, timeline setting, steps break-up, milestone celebrations, motivation, inching closer to your GOALS. Well all this sounds more or less like a excerpt from a Project Management book at your B-School. No. This is simply the latest thing running in my office where all the employees have put together all their Goals on the wall:

1 yr goal

5 yr goal

10 yr goal

Lifetime Goal.

In the image some 32 Goal sheets are visible which says exactly this. I think its necessary and every company should do this. Get your employees to decide the goals. Set some timelines. Breakup the path to achieve those goals into smaller units. Self Motivate yourself. Keep working and celebrate the milestones. Achieve and Enjoy! Start your journey for the next goal.

What is naseba?

A lot of people have been asking me recently, what is naseba? Well here is your FAQ answered...

Q) What is naseba?

A) The word naseba comes from a Japanese idiomatic expression: "when there is a will there is a way." naseba can be translated, "if you make it happen." naseba is Business Information (BI).

We are committed to provide BI to the entire online community without them paying any charge for the same. We are a product company and our products are Strategic Business platforms like Congresses, Forums, Conferences or Expos.

Q) Is naseba Event Management Company?

A) NO

We produce, promote and host our own strategic business platforms using a conference, congress, expo or forum format - depending on the market - with the ultimate focus on ‘knowledge expansion’, ‘networking’ but most importantly maximizing ‘deal-making’ opportunities for all our executive clients.

Q) How are you unique from other similar events companies?

A) Let me answer this in bulleted format:

We are into providing you with Business Information for your strategic decision making.

We don’t host someone else’s events.

We host our own Strategic Business Platforms for business information exchange.

We give commitment in our contract, in black and white, the target number of people attending our event.

Pre-scheduled One-to-One business meetings.

A complete delegate directory with contact information & pre-course questionnaire to help you uncover the needs of the prospective client in advance.

Open business meeting to ensure you do not miss out on meeting any delegates you would want to meet.

Table sponsorship opportunities to maximize your visibility.

Limited numbers of suppliers to ensure you are not surrounded by your rivals.

Hope this makes us as a “unique” company!

Q) What products does naseba have?
A) naseba provides 4 streams of international products:

Travel & Tourism Series - 10 strategic congresses focused on maximizing networking and deal-making opportunities for Travel & Tourism professionals.

CXO Strategies - designed exclusively for CXOs by CXOs providing a UNIQUE mix of best practice and knowledge sharing in a problem-solving environment.

Global Expansion Series - a dynamic two-day platform created for busy decision makers to conduct business in their respective infrastructure sectors through prescheduled, one-to-one business meetings interwoven with re-educational sessions and the ultimate networking parties.

Knowledge Expansion - a conference format with a networking approach, focused on dynamic re-education for busy upper-level executives who do not attend vendor-driven conferences.

Q) How old is your company, some company history details?

A) In order to climb to the next level and expand more aggressively - further proving to make things happen - naseba did a reverse takeover of MM Finance, a company listed on the Marché Libre of the Paris Stock exchange - therefore, on October 5th, 2006 naseba proudly went public.
Since inception in 2002, naseba has expanded its portfolio of worldwide executive congress and forums to 60 annual strategic B2B platforms covering 26 different industries.

As a leading global business information company with headquarters in Monaco, naseba has offices strategically located in eight cities around the world and employs over 200 executives from more than 30 nationalities.

We are multicultural, dynamic and focused on making it happen.

I have joined naseba

I have joined naseba last week. I joined as a Marketing Director for the India and Middle East markets. I am accompanied with my colleague Zafar who brings in his extensive experience in Middle East market. My role would be to work along with Zafar to set-up a marketing department for the company and help generate leads and generate revenue. I am reporting to Liam Findlay, CRM Director, who has envisioned this entire department.

naseba is Business Information.

naseba producec, promotes and hosts strategic business platforms using a conference, congress, expo or forum format - depending on the market - with the ultimate focus on knowledge expansion, networking but most importantly maximizing deal-making opportunities for all our executive clients. naseba is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The word naseba comes from a Japanese idiomatic expression: "when there is a will there is a way."naseba can be translated, "if you make it happen."

As a leading global business information company with headquarters in Monaco, naseba has offices strategically located in eight cities around the world and employs over 200 executives from more than 30 nationalities.

naseba is proud to be working in partnership with many leading press groups and local authorities such as BBC World, CNBC, Financial Times, Time, Al Arabiya, London Convention Bureau, the Principality of Monaco, the Abu Dhabi Government and the City of Prague, just to name a few.

I feel highly motivated with our CEOs statement: "The secret to our success is that we understand that all participants, both sponsors and executive delegates, must have a return on their investment - whether that investment is time or money. Our high rebooking rate of both executive delegates and sponsors is proving that we are delivering this ROI to our clients.” Scott Ragsdale, Chairman and CEO.

Communication!

Say it Right the First Time

There are many different ways to produce high-performance results in organizations. Some companies create an internally competitive environment where the toughest, but not necessarily the most competent, rise to the top. Other organizations build a consensus culture where agreement replaces quality by reducing decisions to the least common denominator. Organizations of the future, however, are choosing a longer term approach to producing results by investing in people. The most prized possession in these companies is the high level of accountability and collaboration among people.

Communication, language in particular, is the vehicle for unleashing the power of people. Words are potent and they can drive or retard the growth of an individual or a company. So they should be cautiously utilized. I am hereby sharing some thoughts and some daily use language, which forms the communication dialogue between people everyday. These language snippets, aptly used with the right timing can do wonders for people at different management levels.

Your Purpose
To inspire positive action in others by communicating accountably at all times!

You need to help other take 100% Accountability. What 100% accountability means is:

>Choosing to be an OWNER of everything you do.
>Accepting responsibility (not blame) for your impact on results and people.
>Focusing on what you can do instead of waiting for other to act.

7 Keys to speak accountably:

Talk straight responsibly – Being appropriately direct, honest, and straightforward raises trust and credibility.
Inspire positive action – Communicating in an up-lifting manner.
Collaborate with others – Working well others gives more speed and flexibility, competitive advantage in market.
Build ownership – Taking accountability for results and their impact on others.
Commit with integrity – Commitments should be made only when they can be fulfilled, else bargain for time.
Hold people accountable – By holding yourself and people accountable for high standards, morale is raised along with performance.
Recover quickly – Perfection is not the wuest; recovering quic kly should be the goal. Admitting mistakes, using breakdowns and problems as learning experiences increase creativity, innovation, and risk taking.

Short Statements that inspire Accountability

Speaking Accountably

“That’s the problem in a nutshell”
ü Add: “Now it’s up to us to turn this around.”

“This is an issue we must address quickly.”
ü Add: “I’m confidant we can do this.”

“We will meet on Friday at 8 a.m. in the conference room.”
ü Add: Let’s use this time to generate new ideas together.”

“I haven’t had the chance to read your report.”
ü Add: “I always appreciate how you look at things.”

“We are facing a number of challenges this next year.”
ü Add: “I’m happy to be on a great team. We’ll need everyone’s thinking and energy.”

“Good Morning.”
ü Add: “It’s always good to see you.”

Here is the document, read it and let’s talk.
ü Add: “I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.”

I am just at the starting point; I would be sharing some more thoughts in coming time. I would highly appreciate your comments and suggestions to improve my posts. I hope this would be helpful in bringing an all-round high performance leadership in your organization.

Strive Harder!

After reading the news below, I am just going to head faster and faster to reach my goals!_______________________________________________________

San Francisco-based drug distributor, McKesson's chairman, John Hammergren, recieved a total compensation package valued at $22.6 million last year. This is in commesurate with the record profit posted by the company last year.Besides his salary of $1.37 million, Hammergren also collected eleven million dollars in bonuses.He also was awarded stock options and restricted stock that had an estimated value of nearly ten million dollars.In addition to the salary, bonuses and stock options, McKesson also doled out nearly $500,000 in other benefits for Hammergren including his personal use of the company's aircraft.McKesson earned 913 million in its fiscal year ending in March, the highest annual profit since its inception in 1833. Revenue also reached a new peak at $93 billion.

______________________________________________________

Keep working hard!

Organization Citizenship Behavior

Organization Citizenship Behavior

“No employee in any organization is indispensable, every employee’s efforts to become indispensable brings foreword the citizenship”

In today’s competitive world we see the biggest challenge in front of a Leader would be managing and motivating people in an organization. People are one of the most important drivers of the business and no business leader can ignore this fact. People, who can be technology enablers, technology managers, sales enablers or sales managers, everyone needs to be motivated.

Another challenge faced by Leaders is to align the entire company to the business objectives. This is a major challenge posed to any Managing Director; HR Manager; Delivery Managers; as failing to align people in your company would essentially mean a Hay-wire execution which results in inability to meet business targets. This challenge of People Motivation and Alignment leads us to find out innovative techniques to achieve the same.

In my article below I run you through an innovative leadership technique which, out of my experience and interaction with business leaders from Fortune 100 companies has shown success.

Organization Citizenship Behavior or OCB is one human behavioral technique under research for improvisation in many institutions worldwide as well as tried and tested approach in many Fortune 500 companies. OCB is one way in which there is a direct involvement of the business leaders with the people in his company. There is an open communication channel and there is a clear understanding in every individual of their role in the organization.

You might wonder how come Citizenship is being talked about in respect of an organization. Essentially citizenship is considered in terms of States or Countries; however, there is a striking similarity between a state and an organization. Driven by a Leadership with values and distinct goals in mind, any state, works for the development of its citizens. In addition to providing rights to the citizen, it can motivate its citizens to contribute to there duties. Similarly, in an organization, driven by a strong leadership and distinct values one can help every individual to understand his or her roles importance in the organization and by fulfilling the basic rights of freedom of work it can drive them to go beyond there call of duty by making them the Citizens of the company.

What this leads to is, creation of a “Citizen” and not an “Employee”. Having a lot of employees in the company is not a great thing and not enough, what matters is how many citizens have been grown in the organization.

It’s a proven fact that any Citizen of the Company would perform much better than any employee. Every citizen would take decisions which are aligned with the company’s business objectives. The strategy and execution would work hand-in-hand delivering higher productivity, and increased business revenues.

I would categorize Citizenship behavior in an organization in two parts:
Self inculcated citizenship behavior
External Driven Citizenship behavior

Self inculcated citizenship behavior:

Such behavioral occurrences are due to an Individuals’ high understanding of the organization and personal belief in ideologies of the organization. The urge to get benefited on a long term basis for any individual drives them to co-operate as well as contribute. Thus drives a citizenship amongst themselves and peers to achieve long term goals and bring in long term discipline.

This behavior is not comfortably supported by an organization until the individual makes an extra effort to educate and influence others. The individual needs to communicate the same within a smaller group and hence find ambassadors to promote the same.

As an organization, starts seeing the benefits of this behavior, starts encouraging the cause and hence motivates the individual and the organization on a whole. This is the time when the individuals taking these initiatives creates a higher value for themselves in the organization and become indispensable.

External Driven Citizenship behavior:

In this kind of behavior, individuals are motivated by the management to inculcate an additional responsibility where they create enough awareness and need, to become a citizen of the organization rather than just being an employee.

Creating this culture in an organization requires additional efforts to educate all employees, to motivate them further and align them further with the company goals and objectives. To find ambassadors to promote this behavior, a strong sense of understanding is required along with a crafted communication message.

Organizations which are able to achieve such feats really have individuals working with them who are very passionate and committed. Such initiatives are then passed on from management to the employees and the employees finally become the ambassadors of the cause. This creates a lot of value for the managers. The ambassadors who practically implement such initiatives again draw enough attention from management and get recognition for the same.

Various ways which can lead to having lots of citizens in an organization can be as follows:


Leader Spending Time with Citizens
v Every Leader should spend enough time with its citizens to communicate the business goals of the organization.
v Spending time helps people understand, what is expected out of every individual, to achieve the business goals
v It gives freedom to the individuals to take creative decisions keeping in mind the business goals
v It again helps them to verify the decisions and check if they align well with the objectives
v As well as the leader should explain the importance of Contribution to the company as the next step to Learning

Citizens spending time to see the Bigger Picture
v Every citizen having understood there role in the organization should try to spend time in coming out of that frame and should try to understand the bigger picture.
v Post understanding the basic elements of there role the citizen should try to look at the importance of there role and how to improve and enhance productivity.
v Learning is a life long process, to emerge as a successful citizen there should be a focus on contributing to the company.

As an employee in an organization try to think
Am I Indispensable in this company?
If your answer is Yes try to do things which moves you closer to become a Citizen and
if your answer is No, you need to learn a lot more!

College days part 1

College Days....I did my engineering staying away from home for 4 yrs (not continuous, as in, use to frequent home) and had a GR 8 time in college…
Again I had an 8 guys group @ college and we used to go to various colleges all over India to attend the various Cultural and Technical fests…
I’ve been to BITS Pilani, IIT Delhi, NSIT Delhi, DCE Delhi, REC Jalandher, Thapar Patiala, PEC Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panipat…..and the list goes on
We were a mast group with guys who were best @Dance,music,quizzing,debating,JAM,skits,plays,singing,dancing,presentations,Literary events, marketing events…etc etc
We won a lotta event and used to collect a lotta certificates…J
Had a tremendous fun @collig…I was into Hosting, Organizing etc for various events…and even I organized Blood Donation camp in our collig…I was a regular Blood Donor so it struck me that I can organize the whole event…And even in Wipro I have consistently month after month won some prizes in extra curricular and hosted some events @Wipro Technologies level..!!!
In college I used to be a bit short tempered however from the time I have joined this job I have mellowed down. I have become very patient, I listen to others very meticulously and that has actually made me a mature and sensitive person. Now I don’t react to situations rather I respond to situations!
However sometimes if some1 really gets on my nerves then there r 2 options…either I’ll blast him/her or won’t talk to them ever!
Now don’t get scared…generally it doesn’t happen and I most of the time forgive people!!!

School Days 1

School days Part 1... No body can forget…I was in a day school so had the normal school going routine and had a nice friend circle in there and we used to have GR8 time @school as well as @home as we were a group of 5 guys(Sumit, Ajay, Deepanker, Piyush(he joined after 10th) and me) who were well to do and intelligent too…all IITians DCEians RECians…IIMs…All cool guys…and we use to Njoy a lot…

We use to meet up at any1s home for doing those holiday homework in summer holidays. And we use to generally eat at home as my mom is a gr8 cook, we used to play a lot and ya in the last week of summer holidays all those project making, charts n all…that was fun. I remember those days when teachers use to scold us while we use to munch our lunch before lunch time in the class. Not only our but also all the reachable Tiffin of our mates. It used to be gr8 fun hanging around in school, playing games, reading in library…I feel nostalgic now.

Then i remember that amazing incident tht happened with me, sumit and ajay...we bunked and went to Priya complex and unknowingly entered the Baskin Robbins(We all r 8th std kids so no ideas about the price menu and lil money in poockets) Ordered our fav ice cream scoops and drinks...happily waiting and overjoyed with the feeling of that cool delight that was gonna go down our food pipes...just then the reality snake bit us when the guy at counter started removing the plates in front of the prices mentioned there...and we all were looking equally dumb while watching that...oohhh in all our order was worth around 350 buks and what we all in toto carrying 400 bucks and we were supposed to watch a movie yet....

Suddenly GOD may b heard us or what...just then the came from inside and told that they have ran out of serving glasses and the sweat just rolled back from our foreheads as if we have actually eaten that cool
delightful icecreams...we all shouted in tandem okk no problems and thanking them just ran out of that place :)
After that we made sure that weare not listening to the costly ideas of Sumit...as this was his idea only....

I was OK in my studies usually I was in the 90% bracket so teachers were happy with me most of the times…science was my area of interest so took up science and engineering was the most obvious option after that…

but in collig I realized many hidden talents in me (ok am a Brag ) so thot of moving my focus area to be media/advertising but then marketing with expanding my horizons of knowledge recognized it soon that there is lotta opportunities in Technical Marketing or strategic marketing as they call it!So wud be pursuing my MBA some time after some gud 2-3 yrs work ex. Ryt now Njoying my life to fullest!

Workout!!

Every day when i look at my tummy...I feel i should get rid of at least some more pounds!!!
Now don't let your assumptions go wild...am not FAT its just that am slightly overweight u can say some 4-5 Kgs but then this flab can be done away with soon by Working Out in a GYM!!!

How easy it seems to say this...the reality shows its teeth to you in Morning when you have to break the warm envelope of your bed sheet...
It won't let u break itself in the first go and then ur inner self may stop u further and say don't go dude u can make up for this tomorrow!
WARNING: Don't let these tantrums of ur bed sheet stop you anymore...I have Won over this and I would say this to all you won't find any other day to start this...If u want something to happen its Now and Right now!!!

The moment I broke that shield of laziness around me...I found myself in GYM and that to Live Fresh and Kicking!
Only a person who workouts can experience this feeling of Freshness and Strength around him/Her!

And now I am loving it...everyday I look forward to go to GYM and workout and get rid of that xtra flab around me! Ya I know it will probably take some regular effort of 2 months but am not afraid of it and am face to face with this challenge!

If you would have read 7 habits of Highly effective people then in his book he tells about "Sharpening the Tool" which means sharpening the body which has made the world go around it! So it becomes really necessary to go and Workout regularly! Exercise should be made a habit instead of just being a monthly endeavor...

Working out doesn't necessary means you have to push and pull those heavy monstrous weights on those Big machines...there are so many other exercises which are for cardio and other parts of body which helps u to be in shape and once u get in the habit of it...u'll start enjoying it and u'll love it!!!

So wish me luck that I continue with this and make it a Habit of mine!

All the best to all 4 there Workout!

Law of Seeds

Take a look at an apple tree. There might be five hundred apples on the tree, but each apple has just ten seeds. That's a lot of seeds!

We might ask, "Why would you need so many seeds to grow just a few more apple trees?"

Nature has something to teach us here. It's telling us: "Not all seeds grow. In life, most seeds never grow. So if you really want to make something happen , you had better try more than once."

This might mean: You'll attend twenty interviews to get one job. You'll interview forty people to find one good employee. You'll talk to fifty people to sell one house,

one car, one vacuum cleaner, one insurance policy, or a business idea. And you might meet a hundred acquaintances just to find one special friend.

When we understand the "Law of the Seed", we don't get so disappointed. We stop feeling like victims. We learn how to deal with things that happen to us.

Laws of nature are not things to take personally. We just need to understand them - and work with them.

Successful people fail more often. But they plant more seeds.

When Things Are Beyond your control, here's something that you must NOT DO so as to be happy: You must not decide how you think the world SHOULD be.

You must not make rules for how everyone SHOULD behave. Many times, such thoughts can bring you spiraling down into more unhappiness.

On the other hand, let's say you expect that:

Friends SHOULD return favours.

People SHOULD appreciate you.

Planes SHOULD arrive on time.

Everyone SHOULD be honest.

Your best friend SHOULD remember your birthday.

These expectations may sound reasonable. But often, these things won't happen! So you end up frustrated and disappointed.

There's a better strategy. Demand less, and instead, have preferences !

For things that are beyond your control, tell yourself: "I WOULD PREFER "A", BUT IF "B" HAPPENS, IT'S OK TOO!"

You prefer that people are polite.. but when they are rude, it doesn't ruin your day.

You prefer sunshine... but if it rains, it is ok too!

To become happier, we either need to:

a) Change the world, or

b) Change our thinking.

It is easier to change our Thinking!

IN A NUTSHELL

It's not the problem that is the issue, but rather it is your attitude attending to the problem that is the problem. It's not what happens to you that determine your happiness but rather how you think about what happens to you!

Focussed on Goals...

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there...to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out who you are or who you want to become. You never know who these people may be but you lock eyes with them, you know that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way. And sometimes things happen to you at the time that may seem horrible, painful and unfair, but in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles you would never realize your potential, strength, will power or heart. Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of luck. Illness, love, lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test limits of your soul.Without these small tests, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere safe and comfortable but dull and utterly pointless. The people you meet affect your life. The successes and downfalls that you experience can create whom you are, and the bad experiences can be learned from. In fact they are probably the most poignant and important ones. If someone hurts you, betrays you or breaks your heart, forgive them because they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to whom you open your heart.If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but also because they are teaching you to love and open your heart and eyes to little things. Make every day count. Appreciate everything that you possibly can, for you may never experience it again.Talk to people whom you have never talked to before, and actually listen. Let yourself fall in love, break free and set your sights high. Hold you head up because you have every right to.Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will believe in you. Create you own life and then go out and live it.
"If you take your eyes off your goals, all you see is obstacles."

"It's all in your attitude."

Teacher Debbie Moon's first graders were discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had a different color hair than the other family members. One child suggested that he was adopted and a little girl said, "I know all about adoptions because I was adopted." "What does it mean to be adopted?" asked another child. "It means," said the girl, "that you grew in your mommy's heart instead of her tummy."
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Whenever I'm disappointed with my spot in life, I stop and think about little Jamie Scott. Jamie was trying out for a part in a school play. His mother told me that he'd set his heart on being in it, though she feared he would not be chosen. On the day the parts were awarded, I went with her to collect him after school. Jamie rushed up to her, eyes shining with pride and excitement. "Guess what Mom," he shouted, and then said those words that will remain a lesson to me: "I've been chosen to clap and cheer."
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A lesson in "heart" is my little 10 year old daughter, Sarah, who was born with a muscle missing in her foot and wears a brace all the time. She came home one beautiful spring day to tell me she had competed in "field day" that's where they have lots of races and other competitive events. Because of her leg support, my mind raced as I tried to think of encouragement for my Sarah, things I could say to her about not letting this get her down, but before I could get a word out, she said "Daddy, I won two of the races!" I couldn't believe it! And then Sarah said, "I had an advantage." Ah. I knew it. I thought she must have been given a head start...some kind of physical advantage. But again, before I could say anything, she said, "Daddy, I didn't get a head start...My advantage was I had to try harder!"
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An Eye Witness Account from New York City, on a cold day in December: A little boy about 10 years old was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold. A lady approached the boy and said, "My little fellow, why are you looking so earnestly in that window?" "I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes," was the boy's reply. The lady took him by the hand and went into the store and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with a towel. By this time the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes. She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, "No doubt, my little fellow, you feel more comfortable now?" As she turned to go, the astonished lad caught her by the hand, and looking up in her face, with tears in his eyes, answered the question with these words: "Are you God's Wife?"
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