TO MY BEST FRIEND

TO MY BEST FRIEND

I was sitting here thinking
of the words I want to say,
but they just wouldn't come out right
so I found a different way

I got a piece of paper
and I wrote this poem for you,
but there's no way to thank you
for everything you do

For always being nice to me
and staying by my side,
for helping fix my problems
and never leaving me behind

For accepting my thoughts and feelings,
though you do not understand,
for never giving up on me
and being my best friend

For making me laugh
and letting me cry
and saying you'd miss me
if I were to die

Everything you mean to me
you could never know
In all the ways you've changed my life
I could never show

The way you take care of me,
you're my shining star
and though it's so incredible
that's just the way you are

Before I get too mushy
it's time for me to go,
but before I leave this ink-filled page
there's one thing you should know

As long as we are living,
no matter when or where,
if you ever need me
just call and I'll be there

I'll climb a thousand mountains
and swim a thousand seas
anything to be there
'cause you've been there for me

~With Kind Regards~

Genevieve Desouza

Startup in a slowdown

It isn’t hard to leave a job to start a business if you get laid off.

hi, this is another good article I found over the net and felt worth sharing. I was trying to assess the opportunity and opportunity cost of starting a business in midst the current economic slowdown. So, here we go...

How the downturn might spur entrepreneurs into action!

Yesterday I was doing an interview for the State Comptroller’s office on the state of the Venture Capital industry in Texas. I found myself going negative when I decided to play devil’s advocate and began explaining how the downturn might help Texas in the long run. Here is my thinking:

I have argued North Texas entrepreneurs (or potential entrepreneurs) are too conservative. I have complained over and over that most 20-something ‘potential entrepreneurs’ in Dallas, as opposed to their counterparts in San Francisco and Boston, look a lot more like 30-somethings. Let me explain. In San Francisco most young entrepreneurs are living WAY below their means, sharing houses/apartments and using public transportation. Their fixed costs are VERY low. Compare that with the average ‘potential entrepreneur’ living in Dallas who has a nice big house in the suburbs, a leased BMW, a wife and two kids. I get it. There is no way the 20-something ‘potential entrepreneur’ is going to risk his house, car and family to start a business that is going to fail 90% of the time. On the other hand, the average 20-something in San Francisco can fail over and over with very little impact to his way of life.

What if the downturn continues and deepens? What if we hit double-digit inflation? Maybe a new crop of 20-somethings will emerge in Dallas (and Texas as a whole) who don’t have easy access to credit (to buy houses and cars) and instead focus on building businesses. Without easy access to credit they won’t have anything to risk - everything is upside. Maybe easy credit has been the problem. Of course there is a flip-side to this argument, but that really isn’t my point. Perhaps there is a silver lining. Beyond tightening of credit markets, I suspect there will be a tightening in the job market. It isn’t hard to leave a job to start a business if you get laid off.

Finally, Texas is a very business-friendly state. As companies file Chapter 11 and reorganize, perhaps they will pick states like Texas to relocate to? For example, if Pelosi and Reed would allow GM to file Chapter 11 they could shed their expensive union contracts and move those high paying (i.e. comparable to the Toyota, Honda and BMW jobs we have in Texas) to Texas, Tennessee or South Carolina. Maybe Texas is the NET winner in this realignment?

Source: http://www.texasstartupblog.com/

Being New Manager

Being a First Time Manager and Coaching a First Time Manager.
by Anand

One very key factor in both employee engagement and performance management is the role of the immediate manager. As the Gallup poll on this subject confirms by this classic statement “when an employee joins he/she joins an organisation, BUT when he/she leaves he/she leaves the manager”. This article addresses this critical role of the First Time Manager and coaching the First Time Manager.

I give the summary below
How to get it right as a first time manager:·
Find a coach:
Fine tune your Communication
Build Credibility
Don’t dwell on your mistakes
How to coach your First Time Manager
Encourage, Support
Do not attempt to be in control
Understand Coach vs. Manager
The First Time Manager
Being A First Time Manager
You’ve finally been passed the baton. You now have the organization’s letter that congratulates you on being promoted to a manager. You’re elated, enthusiastic and determined to make a difference. But upon realizing that you now are moving from managing yourself to managing others, anxiety sets in. The initial enthusiasm and confidence slowly begins to fade away to building apprehension on whether or not you will be able to manage people. The feeling isn’t right. Disorientation starts taking over.The key is the make it through the first rough year of being a manager. As Linda Hill, professor at the Harvard Business School says, “The earliest test of leadership comes with that first assignment of managing others. Most new managers initially fail this because of a set of common misconceptions about what it means to be in charge.”
You may have been an outstanding performer as an individual in your previous role but this does not necessarily mean that you will make an outstanding manager. Your individual performance is not as important as the collective performance of your team. As Linda Hill states, you need to “understand what it means to be in charge”. New managers need to identify the challenges they face during an often difficult first year. Three things—getting comfortable with being a beginner again, scoring some early wins, and learning how to ask for help—can make the transition smoother.
Being a manager means a shift from your interests to that of your team. Understanding them is important. Your focus now is to help improve the performance of your team for they are now looking up to you to help them chart their way. As Madeleine Homan, co-founder of Coaching Services for the Ken Blanchard Companies® explains, “The biggest challenge is going from a kind of mono-focused work life where all you had to think about was yourself and your daily task list and moving to a world view that is so much broader.”
However, it is not just your reportees, but your boss and peers who also increasingly demand your time and attention- often leading to conflicting situations leaving you dazed and confused.
One of the things that Homan reminds new managers about is that it is ok to feel overwhelmed. After all, it’s completely normal when you’re faced with a large task that you haven’t done before. What’s important, according to Homan, is how first-time managers respond to this feeling. They can either retreat into their comfort zone and do only what they did best before, thereby not really stepping up as managers or walk through the tide, learning from every mistake they make recognising that they may not get it right the first time, but continue to expand their horizons.
How to get it right
Find a coach: Elvis Presley, the famous rock ‘n’ roll star once narrated an incident, “The first time that I appeared onstage, it scared me to death. I really didn’t know what the yelling was about. I didn’t realise that my body was moving. It’s a natural thing to me. So to the manager backstage I said, “What’d I do? What’d I do?”
Elvis was doing what he did best, what came to him naturally. He was overwhelmed and scared the first time, but he went on to become one of the legendary artists in music history. As a first time manager, you are thrust onstage. People- your boss, peers, and reportees are looking at you to take charge. You begin with what you know best. Yet when it does not work, a coach backstage helps you tide over the initial difficulties. He prompts the lines you missed and does not let the spotlight blind you.
1. Fine tune your Communication: clearly state your priorities and expectations to the team and ask them theirs. Your team needs to understand what you want of them at the same time they, too, should be aware of what to expect from you.
2. Build Credibility: This can be especially challenging when a new manager finds himself trying to establish credibility with direct reports who used to be peers. As Homan explains, “These new managers have to live in the discomfort of knowing that they have no idea what they are doing, and also knowing that there are people who report to them who also know that they don’t know what they’re doing
3. Don’t dwell on your mistakes: it’s ok to make mistakes. Don’t let the fear of failure stop you from taking risks. Focus on the big picture. Developing strong managerial skills will take time. You need to be patient and diligently work towards improving yourself. Learn to be a beginner again.
Coaching a First Time Manager
What do you do once you promote an employee to be a manager? Definitely, he/she has shown the potential of outstanding performer who can go far and beyond. You’ve now officially put the spotlight on this one person who now has to transition from a lone-worker to manage a few people. Just like Elvis Presley, you will have your first-time managers constantly looking backstage (at you) for support. Being a new experience for them, you now become a Coach. Remember the time you were a first time manager? The disillusionment. The apprehension. The confusion. A million questions would have crossed your mind- will I make a good manager? Will my subordinates listen to me? What expectations do I set up? How do I delegate? Etc.
This is exactly what your newly appointed manager is going through. The difficult first year. Once the initial elation and enthusiasm disappears and the enormity of the situation sinks in, he/she will look around for someone to hold on to. This is where your role as a coach comes in.
1. Encourage, Support: As a coach, the first thing that you need to do is ease out the pressure of that the new role may have put on the individual. You need to make him/her understand, that as Herculean a task that it may seem, by keeping a cool head and focus, they will be able to tide over any obstacles that come along. Support the new manager by constantly providing encouraging feedback and directing them towards the right path.
2. Do not attempt to be in control: Do not be authoritative. Understand that you are only a guide lighting the path for the individual. Do not try to force your methods or opinions on to him/her.
3. Understand Coach vs. Manager: A manager and a coach essentially do have overlapping roles; however, a line has to be drawn when it comes to the way in which you provide direction. While as a coach, you need to help the individual find the correct direction as a manager you need to ensure that the individual complies with the said rules and policies to get the job done.
Being a coach requires you to be a friend, a confidant and a role model. The new manager will look up to you for showing him how to get the first year as a manager right. You need to fill him/her up with your experiences- especially about the mistakes and the wrong turns you took while managing a team for the first time. This will help the individual realise that what he/she is going through is not unique and that he/she is not alone. At the time, also discuss what you learned out of from your fall-outs and how you worked hard not to repeat the same mistakes again.You facilitate the individual’s achievements at the same time are there when anything goes wrong.
“Coaching is unlocking the person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”- Fortune Magazine

source: http://www.techtribe.com/viewBlogEntry.html?blogEntryId=78ddd20c-9370-102b-81d6-000f1f68a9bf

stock market

this is one off the road blog, as its on blog but still not one!

THE STOCK market rollercoaster has left many people dazed and
confused, if not broke. Hindustan Times decided to ask some of the
finest

minds around about what they thought of the crash, boom, bang on the BSE.

MANEKA GANDHI: What did you expect! I have it from reliable sources
that those stupid brokers had been running a bull market, alternating
it with a bear market. Disgusting! Serves them right.

BAL THACKERAY: It's providence. The government should have renamed the
BSE the Chhatrapati Shivaji Stock Exchange. Fits in nicely in the area
too, since it's pretty close to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vaastu
Sangrahalaya [the museum, in case you didn't know] and the Chhatrapati
Shivaji Terminus.

MALIKA SHERAWAT: It's the Sen-sex, after all. So it goes up and down,
up and down, up and down...

ARJUN SINGH: The HRD Ministry is proposing a 27 per cent reservation
on the 30-share index for penny stocks, since they may be considered
backward. The current 'correction' is nothing but a manifestation of
years of neglect of such shares.

SHAYAN MUNSHI: I saw nothing, I heard nothing, I don't even speak Hindi.

ESHA DEOL: Sen? Sex? Isn't that the story of my latest movie, Ankahee?

SALMAN KHAN: Let's just shoot those damn bears!

LALU PRASAD YADAV: Kya bole? Bull bhaag gaye? Arre, hamaare paas bahut
hai, ek do le jaaon. As it is, Nitish Kumar has taken over our
bungalow and we have nowhere to keep them.

MANMOHAN SINGH: We're introducing a bill making it illegal for the
Sensex to fall below the 10,500-point mark. Brokerages are, after all,
offices of profit.

BILL CLINTON: Sen-sex? I did not have sex-ual relations with that
woman, Miss Sen.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Let's bomb the BSE!

WishForYou

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and
the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find
the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a
healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know
even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

Amen

Managing Failure

'A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure'

(By Former President of India Hon. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum , Philadelphia, March 22,2008)

Question: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?
Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that day.

When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.

courtsey: Manibhushan Tiwari

whatdoyouknow

whatdoyouknow